


Through a Friend's Eyes

by calie15



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 21:21:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1617485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calie15/pseuds/calie15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Steve sees Bucky and Jemma's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through a Friend's Eyes

Bucky didn't like people touching him, Steve knew that, everyone knew that. That was why Steve stood a few feet away from his best friend as the professionals stitched him up and fixed his cybernetic arm. The wounds he suffered weren’t life threatening, and the damage to his left arm wasn’t unrepairable, but it had to be done. So Steve stood in a corner, arms crossed, and frowned across the room at his friend. Once before he’d tried keeping him preoccupied by talking, but Bucky hadn’t been much for conversation, instead preferring to stare ahead, his gaze hard and unflinching. Steve could only imagine the things he remembered in those moments.

Bucky suffered Steve knew, to what degree he wasn’t sure though. But Steve knew that the things that had been done to Bucky and the things that Bucky had done still haunted him.

They haunted Bucky more when he was placed into situations so similar to those with HYDRA that some people were a little unsure of his mental stability. There had been no physical incidents, but that wasn’t to say Bucky had never been close to it. 

So Steve stood guard, for the sake of the other people in the room and for the sake of Bucky himself. 

Sometimes you needed a friend.

The door burst open and the person entering exhaled loudly in relief. 

And sometimes you needed something more.

Bucky’s head turned immediately towards the door and Steve watched the brunette woman hurry forward, unafraid. Jemma had never been afraid of Bucky.

“Are you okay?” She gasped, clearly out of breath. She’d been running.

Steve watched her bring a hand up to cradle his cheek. Bucky, the old Bucky, would have most likely brushed off such a touching gesture. That might have been embarrassing in front of friends, colleagues. This Bucky only stared up at her and nodded, he didn’t care for anyone else in the room but her.

Steve listened to Jemma question the doctors, ask pointed questions about his injuries, the damage to his arm, and what they were doing to repair it. She sharply told them what to be careful of, because she would have been very angry if she had to have Fitz go in behind them and fix their work. Steve suspected she’d have the other scientist looking over Bucky the next day anyway. 

She looked down Bucky’s body, seeming to note the bandage on his stomach, and then looked back up again. “Oh, Bucky…” She lamented and slid her hand away from his face to settle on his chest.

“It’s fine,” Bucky said finally, then his eyes narrowed and his head lifted off the table slightly. “What happened to your face?”

Steve couldn’t see, but he noticed her lift a hand up to her cheek.

“It’s fine, an accident in the lab. Something exploded and I wasn’t standing back far enough.”

Bucky sighed and settled his head back. “You’re supposed to be safe in a lab Jemma.”

“I know, I-.”

Something happened then. What it was Steve wasn’t sure, but Bucky jerked his left arm and snapped his head to the side. 

“Hey,” Jemma said quickly and grasped his opposite cheek, forcing him to face her. “Look at me.” She brought her hand back down to grasp his own and bent over him slightly as she slid her other hand over his forehead and through his hair, settling it atop his head. “You know the funny part of that story?” She asked with a soft smile. “Fitz has no eyebrows.”

Steve watched as Bucky snorted softly and then Jemma preceded to explain in very great detail how she and Fitz came to explode the lab.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not much later Steve followed Jemma back. Bucky’s repairs were done. The doctors and engineers were giving him a once-over then releasing him. 

When he came to the lab doorway Jemma spun around. “This is quite a mess you have here.”

Jemma glanced around and smiled sheepishly. “I know. Agent Coulson said we’re lucky Director Fury is out of the country. To be honest, there was nothing that could have been. Don’t tell Bucky this, but if it had been anyone less knowledgeable they’d be dead.”

No, Steve wouldn’t be telling Bucky that. “Hopefully you’re being more careful.”

“Oh, trust me, that won’t be happening again,” she said with a light laugh.

“Because I’m not sure what he would do without you,” Steve said, and suddenly the conversation took on a much more somber tone. “What I mean to say is that you mean a lot to him. I’m his best friend, we’ve saved each others lives multiple times, sacrificed our lives to do so, but I can’t do what you do.”

Jemma stared up at him silently and then looked away. After a moment she looked back to Steve and smiled nervously. “Everything needs a women's touch.”

Steve raised an eyebrow and gave her a knowing look. “Jemma, you’re a smart woman. You have to know Bucky loves you.” She looked away suddenly. “You don’t.”

“It’s not that,” she said and looked up. With a deep breath she continued. “I mean, I don’t know, we haven’t…”

At that he took a step forward and looked down at her. “You are the only one that can calm him down, and I’ve been his friend for seventy years. And even back then he’d never been committed to any woman longer then a month or two. When you were taken,” she looked away, and he knew it was a memory she didn’t want to relive, but Steve continued, this time more gently. “When you were taken, it nearly killed him. I hadn’t seen him that withdrawn in a long time.”

“I know,” she said softly and looked down.

“No,” Steve said and stepped closer, “you don’t.” She looked up again. “Maybe you know, but you didn’t see it. The pain, the fear, it was there in his face, and then suddenly it was was gone. Bucky was gone.” Steve had seen it in his eyes. Those once friendly eyes had turned cold, unfeeling. Bucky killed and didn’t even flinch. His movements had been precise, violent, so much like the Winter Soldier Steve had found just a few years ago.

“It took him a while to readjust,” Jemma admitted almost sadly.

Steve had known that, but he suspected that Jemma was much more familiar with his recovery. After she was found Bucky was still withdrawn. It was a couple of weeks before he emerged from that cold, unfeeling shell again. “My point is, he loves you,” she smiled softly, “so much that I think it scares him.”

When she finally opened her mouth to speak something interrupted them.

“Are you trying to move in on my girl Steve?”

There he was, the Bucky that Steve knew. Steve turned with a smile in place. “She said she prefers men with a magnetic personality.” Jemma gasped.

“Please, Jemma is way to smart to make a lame joke like that. It just happens that she is insanely attracted to me and doesn’t know how to live without me,” Bucky said with a growing smile, his eyes sliding over to Jemma who huffed slightly as she gathered her things.

“You’re both full of yourselves,” she grumbled and walked past Steve. “You can have each other.”

Steve watched Bucky grin down at her as she walked passed him and out the door. When she disappeared Bucky turned back to face him. 

“Thanks for waiting around, but if I don’t get going…” Bucky nodded behind him.

Steve waived him off. “Go, go. I wouldn’t dream of being the cause of you sleeping of the sofa.”

Bucky smiled and turned, bounding after Jemma. Steve caught site of them through glass, noticed Bucky slip an arm around her waist and press a kiss to her cheek before they were out of his view.


End file.
